Willie Lyles saga exposes troublesome NCAA loophole

Now that Willie Lyles has turned songbird, we have to wonder if he has more tunes he's planning to share publicly or with the NCAA, have to wonder if his previous claim of legitimate work for legitimate pay with LSU will be recanted and replaced by lyrics that are a lot less flattering for Coach Les Miles and his assistants.

Lyles, a former recruiting-service operator/street agent, was paid $25,000 by Oregon for bogus recruiting information in 2010 and, according to his newfound confessions, for the influence he wielded in funneling two players from Texas to the Ducks.

He also pocketed $6,000 from LSU for ... something.

Yes, we know what service Lyles said he provided and, yes, we know what LSU said it paid for. But previously, before he discovered his conscience or retaliated because he was angry Oregon hung him out to dry, Lyles said he provided above-board services for above-the-table money for Oregon, LSU's season-opening opponent at Cowboys Stadium on Sept. 3 in Arlington, Texas.

LSU associate athletic director Herb Vincent said the school maintains its dealings with Lyles were clean, that Lyles was paid in December for sanctioned, on-the-level work. Lyles didn't respond to several interview requests.

But if he now is telling the truth about his relationship with Oregon Coach Chip Kelly and Kelly's assistants (and he seems to have documentation proving Oregon's gratefulness for him wielding influence), we know his previous attempt to cover for himself and Oregon isn't true. So you'll have to forgive me if, given the way scandal has erupted throughout college sports -- and, specifically, the way smut is leaking from big-time football in the BCS conferences -- in the last calendar year alone, I'm more inclined to presume guilt rather than innocence right now.

"In eight years of working in scouting and working for bigger companies and doing different things in scouting, you get a chance to see a lot and do a lot," Lyles said Tuesday during an interview with a Portland, Ore., radio station. "You see a lot of things that go on.

"That's just stuff that I don't want to even touch on this point and that's about it. I haven't decided on what information I do want to talk about at this point as far as dealing with them. I don't want to say anything that's out of line and out of turn as far as my dealings with LSU."

Actually, it's a little late in the game for Lyles to dummy up, given that he has given up Oregon via the claim that he believes Oregon paid him to steer players to Eugene.

So, to think Lyles and LSU would be incapable of doing what Lyles and Oregon apparently did would be beyond naïve.

Now, that doesn't mean Miles and LSU did anything wrong.

The explanation that they, and schools other than Oregon, have given for compensating Lyles completely could be valid. It's no secret that schools pay for information provided by recruiting services and, unfortunately, it's hard to know whether the Lyles' of the college football world are being greased for real, usable information or because they have close, personal relationships with athletes on whom they're providing real, usable information.

Forking over thousands of dollars to owners of recruiting services isn't yet an NCAA violation. It's a loophole football coaches, and athletic departments, have found a way to use (funny how athletes can't get paid, but guys who provide information about them can).

But now that Lyles has flipped on Oregon, it's logical to wonder if that's the end of him turning.

He could implicate and taint both programs.

If he was willing to take money from Oregon, and hand over information on players who weren't even in high school anymore, because Oregon panicked and requested information to make his payment appear legit, then it's no stretch to imagine that whatever "service" he provided to LSU and anyone else might straddle the line between real and bogus.

Lyles insisted that the garbage he provided Oregon isn't what he gave to LSU and California, another school he serviced for a reported $5,000.

"It won't be because (the information he provided LSU and Cal) is what they asked me to provide," he said during the interview. "With Oregon, the document dump, those things that were shown were last-minute things that were thrown together. But as you saw in the newer databases, they were a lot more extensive.

"That was the threshold of where, 'OK, we're going to stop doing it this way and start doing it the way we need to do it on paper.'

"That was the big difference. But those other schools, Cal already had a database, LSU already had information. That's what they asked for, so I gave it to them."

Sounds legit, insomuch as that's what recruiting service folks get paid for. But he sounded legit when he originally talked about what he did for Oregon.

Now, he's singing a different tune. LSU can only hope Lyles' lyrics don't change where the Tigers are concerned.